"Microsoft has been furiously ripping out legacy code in Windows 8 that would have enabled third parties to bring back the Start button, Start Menu, and other software bits that could have made this new OS look and work like its predecessor. In fact, I've seen that several well-known UI hacks that worked fine with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are no longer functional in the coming Release Preview. And those with hopes that Microsoft would allow businesses, at least, to boot directly to the desktop should prepare for disappointment. That feature not only isn't happening, it's being removed from Windows Server 12 (Windows 8's stable mate) as well." When you buy a new machine later this year, you will use Metro, an environment wholly inferior, incomplete, and not at all ready to replace the traditional desktop in any way, shape, or form. Whether you like it or not.

Yeah, like the average user has any say on what Ubuntu does. What, you think the average user is going to fork Ubuntu or GNOME or KDE or Unity if he/she doesn't like it? Open source's "openness" is largely theoretical. As a practical matter, the typical user is stuck with whatever the devs decide to do as much as with closed source.

And spare me the "we have early initiatives ... the revolution has started" nonsense. OSS devs spend so much time just copying what the closed source devs do, that it's hilarious for them to claim some sort of technical supremacy.